


Wildfire

by EmptyVault



Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Action/Adventure, And Rhea isn’t far behind, Because they’re adorable too, Dashings of Mozara, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Romance, Zane is a goner from the off, flirtatious banter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:16:00
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23873788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmptyVault/pseuds/EmptyVault
Summary: “Why exactly are you doing this, Zane? What’s your game here?”“Maybe I’m just tryin’ to prove that I mean well?” He grinned smugly.*****It was just one more job, one more payday and one more chance for Zane Flynt to finally have a fucking song written about his frankly awesome deeds.He just didn’t anticipate having to share the glory with one of Hyperion’s runaway science projects.
Relationships: Zane Flynt/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	1. Gum

“Hop aboard, pal!”

Zane climbed up the stairs of the bus and nodded cordially to Marcus before turning to find a seat. That wouldn’t be a great hardship for him considering that only one other seat was occupied by a hooded figure who sat at the back, seemingly asleep.

“Alright, it’s a party bus!” He said in a deliberately loud voice, grinning to himself when the other passenger jolted awake and huffed irritability, clearly angry at being disturbed. They said nothing however, and didn’t even so much as glance up in his direction.

_Honestly, no sense of humour on anybody these days._

He sat himself down about halfway up the bus as it took off again and began rolling through the barren wastes of Pandora. It was another dry, scorching day, like they all were on this godforsaken spit of rock, and as he stared out of the window he found himself wondering for perhaps the hundredth time why he’d bothered to come back here when there were at least a dozen far better planets he could have chosen to retire on. It wasn’t like he had any warm fuzzy memories of this place. Maybe he was just feeling particularly sentimental the day he decided to walk away from contract killing for good?

At any rate, it sure as hell wasn’t the smell. Had someone died on this bus or something? He wrinkled his nose and slid the window open, not that it made much difference however as the outside smelled just as bad as the inside.

He’d been back on his home planet for less than a month with hopes of a nice, quiet retirement in mind, hopes that were flung firmly out of the window the first night he’d gone for a drink. Now, Zane Flynt was no stranger to a good bar fight, he’d been banned, unbanned and banned again from more watering holes than he cared to remember; but in the time it took for him to finish one pint he’d been shot at, stabbed and punched twice in the face. Not that any of those things was particularly uncommon on Pandora, particularly for someone with his colourful reputation, but it did sour his mood a little to know that his retirement plans would have to be put on hold for a while longer. He didn’t know which he preferred, the bandits of his childhood, or these new jumped up Children of the Vault that had begun cropping up over the last couple of years.

They were everywhere lately, storming settlements left, right, and centre, recruiting anyone too stupid to say no, and just straight up slaughtering everyone else like it was their godgiven right. He was used to Pandora being a near inhabitable dumpster fire, but this really took the cake.

_Maybe I should have considered retiring to Aquator? I'm long overdue for a vacation, anyway._

“So, _two_ new vault hunters, huh? Looks like Lilith really hit the jackpot this time. We should be arriving at base shortly, just need to get through this goddamn COV territory first.” Marcus went on, not bothering to slow down to avoid the large pothole in the middle of the road. Zane quirked an eyebrow and turned to the other passenger.

“You a vault hunter too?”

They said nothing back, but he did notice glowing orange eyes flicker in his direction under their hood. He wished they would remove the damn thing, he disliked people who kept themselves hidden away like that, folk were rarely ever as mysterious as they liked to pretend. He rolled his eyes at their stubborn silence and looked down at their hands, where they were busy playing with a lighter.

He blinked. It wasn’t a lighter. Their whole damn thumb was on fire!

“Um, pal? You’ve got a little somethin’-”

“Uh oh, end of the line. I hope your shields are in working order, friends.” Marcus piped up, slamming on the breaks suddenly.

Zane turned back to the front and instinctively activated his barrier when he saw a rocket heading right for the front window.

Everything after that was a mess of fire and broken glass. He was thrown out of the open window in the initial explosion and rolled around in the dirt by the side of the road for a moment while he waited for his head to stop ringing. _Fuck!_ He was gonna be sore tomorrow.

“Th-this bloody planet’s gonna be the death of me one day!” He coughed as he clambered back to his feet and began staggering about, gun in hand, trying to get his bearings and figure out who or what he should be firing at. The bus lay upside down in the middle of the road, a flaming wreckage, and he tutted sympathetically.

Shame, looks like Lilith’s only gettin’ one vault hunter today. But at least it’s the good lookin’ one.

He saw Marcus round the other side of the bus, shouting and waving his arms furiously in the direction of the wreck.

“Just look at the state of this! That is the last time I sell to those little bastards at less than triple my usual prices!” He fumed, aiming a kick at one of the hubcaps. Zane approached him, trying to ignore the way his muscles and joints now ached furiously.

“Yes, yes we’re all cryin’ over here. Tragic, really. Mind tellin’ me how far it is to base?”

“Huh? Oh, right! Just follow the road straight ahead, you can’t miss it. Looks like you’ll have to fight your way through first, though. I, on the other hand, am getting the hell out of here while I still can. Good luck.”

And with that, he hit the transport button on his ECHO device and vanished into thin air, leaving Zane alone to deal with the hoard of screaming bandits that were heading right for him.

“Fine, I work better alone anyway,” He rolled his shoulders, grimacing at the loud pop that came from his joints, and activated a switch on the side of his belt, stepping to one side as a blue holographic clone spawned beside him, mirroring his own cocksure grin.

“Well, mostly alone.”

A sudden banging noise coming from the bus distracted him from the influx of psychos up ahead, and he turned just in time to see a heavy boot kick one of the only remaining windows out. Seconds later the other vault hunter emerged from the wreck and scrambled to their feet. The way that they stumbled awkwardly over to him suggested that they had been drinking before the explosion and he couldn’t help the bemused smirk that ghosted his face as they tried to walk in a straight line.

_Well, I’ll be damned. Lucky bastard made it!_

“Uh… you alright there, mate?”

They stopped in front of Zane and swayed a little on the spot. They had lost their hood somewhere back on the bus, but their relatively short stature and the way their head was bowed as they wiped the sweat from their brow meant that he still couldn’t see much of their face past waves of long, deep blue hair.

That is, until they looked up at him with a scowl.

“Bastards made me swallow my gum.”

_Well fuck, that’s a bonnie lass if ever I saw one._

He wasn’t quite sure what he’d expected to find under the shroud she wore, maybe some grossly disfigured character or a highly wanted fugitive, maybe even a droid? He’d heard there would be one of those on this trip. But he sure as hell hadn’t been expecting the small, unassuming woman who was standing in front of him now.

She definitely wasn’t from around here, that was immediately clear in the way she carried herself. Drunk or not, most Pandorans were extremely cautious folk, himself included; always keenly aware of the ever present threat around them and fingers never too far from the trigger. Yet there was none of that hard distrust in her eyes that he’d had beaten into him as a kid, and the way she casually leaned into her hip and glared up at him screamed that this was a woman who simply didn’t belong here.

_So where’d she get those scars, I wonder?_

There was a smear of blood coating her lips, likely from the wreck, but beneath that he could see a thin, pink line that ran from her upper lip to her chin on the right side. There were also light marks cross-crossing her wrists, not like a callus or a burn, but like she’d been restrained.

_How interesting…_

“Uh...huh. Well, I’m sure there are worse things that can happen to you in an explosion,” He cleared his throat of the sudden dryness that plagued him and tapped the corner of his mouth. “You’ve got a little red on you. Right there.”

He watched as she wiped at her mouth with the back of her hand, sparing a cursory glance down at the blood she’d smeared there, and when her tongue nipped out to run lightly over her swollen bottom lip in search of the source of the injury he felt all the blood drain from his brain and head south.

“So, were you planning on killing these guys or what?”

“...Huh?”

His head snapped around. Whoops. He’d almost forgotten about the bloodthirsty bandits who were still heading in their direction and glanced back over his shoulder at his apparently new companion.

_A bloody distraction is what you are, I’m callin’ it now._

He gave his head a firm shake and tried to concentrate on anything but this strange, beautiful woman standing beside him. “You take the ones over there, I’ve got the ones on the right.”

Her head cocked to one side in silent acknowledgement and she walked off, stumbling over her own feet a little and leaving Zane to his share of the mayhem.

‘Mayhem’ was his middle name, after all.

Altogether, there were probably about fifteen bandits in total, and none of them were particularly well organised or intelligent. By the time any of them even realised they were firing upon his decoy he’d already crept up behind them and unleashed a merciless attack, downing every last one before they knew what hit them, a maniacal chuckle on his lips.

“Ah, that never gets old.” He sighed contentedly when the last bandit hit the dirt, nodding to his clone as it deconstructed again and bringing his watch up to his face. _Eighteen and a half seconds. Not my best work, but eh, it’ll do._

He then glanced over at his companion and frowned.

“The bloody hell is she doin’?”

It didn’t look as though she’d put anyone down yet, she hadn’t even drawn the pistol at her hip. She was just… standing there, rubbing her hands together like she was trying to warm them up while psychos closed in around her.

“I find shootin’ ‘em’s the key!” He offered, palming his own gun nervously. They were going to tear her limb from limb if she didn’t act soon, he couldn’t just stand there and let that happen. Despite his reputation, he _did_ have a heart somewhere underneath all of the shrapnel embedded in his chest.

Her large eyes flickered in his direction and met his gaze, glinting mischievously amidst the chaos, and she shot him a one sided grin that made his heart stutter furiously. Only then did he realise that she was luring them into a trap. Before he could begin to ponder her plan however, his attention was diverted by the wall of fire that erupted from her hands.

“What the feck!?”

It was unlike anything he’d ever seen before, and he’d seen a lot of downright weird shit. Her hands seemed to glow white hot as a continuous wave of flame flowed from her palms, right into the oncoming bandits, who began running in all directions, shrieking as they burned alive, much to Zane’s immense pleasure.

“Wrong way, lads.” He grinned at a couple of tinks who were attempting to flee in his direction, only to be blasted into oblivion as they dashed by him. Even then, he barely took his eyes off of his companion.

_Alright, the mystery was definitely worth wearin’ a hood. He decided with an impressed nod._

Eventually the fire petered out, and the only enemy still standing was a single psycho who was well out of reach of the pair of them, running for his life from this tiny, dangerous woman.

“Shame, looks like you missed one.” He remarked with a grin as he approached. She looked over in the direction of the fleeing psycho, panting a little, and huffed out a quiet laugh.

“I don’t think so.”

Zane took a step back when her fist began to smoke and she took off at a run, throwing some sort of ball of fire as hard as she could in the bandit’s direction. He brought up a hand to shield his eyes from the sun and squinted at it as it flew further... further... _whack!_ It hit the psycho square on the head, knocking him into the dirt, then added insult to injury by setting him aflame.

He heard her snicker over the sound of screaming and she turned to walk back over to him, shaking her hand out as she did.

“Ugh, I needed that. It's been ages since I last got into a fight,” She gestured to the device on his belt that triggered his digi-clone with a raised eyebrow. “That’s some seriously impressive tech, by the way.”

She was the impressed one?

“Uh... thank you? I’m sorry, we haven’t been properly introduced.”

She snapped her fingers and pointed at him. “Zane, right?”

“Ok, so not only can you shoot fire from your fingers, but you’re a psychic too? Jeez lass, save some super powers for the rest of us!”

She frowned. “Psychic? No, I think you're confused. Marcus told me who you were. ‘We’re going to grab Zane and then we’ll head to base.’ Speaking of which, where’d that price gouging little bastard go?”

“He, uh, he left.” So, not a psychic then. Well, didn’t he feel like a complete idiot? “And who might you be exactly, my strange, non-psychic, fiery-handed friend?”

The corner of her lips quirked in amusement, and damn it all if it didn’t feel like she was challenging him. “Call me Rhea.” She held out a hand for him to shake, and he had to make doubly sure that it wasn’t still on fire before he took it, though his brow furrowed a little when he noticed how remarkably cool her skin was.

“And what exactly are you, Rhea? A siren?”

She snorted and gestured to her bare arms. “You see any tattoos here? Trust me, I’m no siren, I’m just… no one. I’m just a vault hunter, ‘kay?”

“If you say so, lass,” He shrugged. So not a siren, either, but definitely interesting. He’d travelled to dozens of planets over the years and met many strange and interesting characters, but never in his life had he come across a person who could summon fire like she could without the aid of gadgets or some kind of celestial power, and her apparent reluctance to talk about where her abilities had come from only fed Zane’s curiosity.

There was a story here, he could tell, and judging by her marked wrists it was likely a sinister one, accompanied by no small amount of grief on her part. Maybe he should just leave her be? Let this one slide for a change?

_Pft, yeah right. Zane Flynt doesn’t let anythin’ slide._

Rhea turned and sauntered back over to the wreck, reaching in and grabbing her bag from inside and shaking the glass and grit from it, before looking back over at him with a grin. “Well, Zane, looks like we’re walking the rest of the way. Why don’t you take the lead?”

Good _God_ that challenging tone in her voice had to be deliberate, and if it wasn’t, the way she removed a new piece of gum from her pocket and placed the chalky stick between her lips definitely was. He gave his head a small shake and gestured down the road.

“After you, lass.” He smirked. She really didn’t want to see what would happen if he took the lead.

_Don’t you tempt me, love._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I noticed there was a severe lack of Zane fics out there, so I decided to do my part to try and remedy that.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


	2. Courtship

“Holy cow! Now _that’s_ a spaceship.”

Zane whistled low as they entered the hangar which held the Sanctuary III. It was a hulking monster of a ship, big enough to fit an entire city on board, or a sizeable army.

_Lilith wasn’t playin’ around when she said she wanted to take down those Calypsos._

Introductions at the Crimson Raiders base had been brief and to the point: they were there to put a stop to the actions of the Calypso twins, the high and mighty ECHO-vloggers who were behind the rise of the Children of the Vault and were responsible for Pandora becoming more of a shitshow than usual. They were attempting to locate and open the vaults that were scattered throughout the galaxy, likely to steal and utilise the technology hidden away inside for themselves and their own nefarious purposes. Really, the who, what and why didn’t matter to Zane so much as the reward did.

And where there was a vault, there was likely to be a whole heap of treasure inside of it.

“Yeah, she’s a beaut. Ellie’s been working on this bad boy for years,” Lilith chimed in, her yellow eyes piercing as she turned to look over her shoulder at the motley crew who were huddled together in the back of the truck. “Now that you’re all here we’re about ready to leave.”

“Sweet, is there a bar on board? I’m dying of thirst back here!” Moze piped up, climbing onto Amara’s shoulders in order to get a better look over everyone else’s heads. Though the siren didn’t appear to mind and held her legs with a wistful grin so that she didn’t topple overboard.

Zane snapped his fingers and pointed at the gunner. “I’m with her, I could murder a pint or two right about now.”

There was general murmuring in agreement from the remaining group over their desire for a good drink. After all, what better way to unwind with your new pals than by getting completely wasted with them?

_And maybe I can get a little more out of a certain pyromancer in the process?_

After their thoroughly explosive first meeting, the walk from the crash site to the Crimson Raiders base had been pretty tame between Zane and Rhea. He’d attempted to do a little probing into her background on the way and perhaps learn about where she came from and why her hands lit up like the fourth of feckin’ July when on the outside she looked like just another ordinary woma- ok, that was a complete lie. The fact of the matter was the woman was downright beautiful and he wasn’t fooling anyone by pretending otherwise.

But as he suspected, Rhea was pretty tight lipped when it came to her personal life. All he’d managed to learn in the short time they were alone was that she was twenty nine years old and her home planet was a place called Isolus, though apparently she left when she was very young.

“You don’t give away much, do ya?” He grinned at her clear reluctance to divulge any meaningful information about herself. She’d responded to that with a small, one-sided smile of her own and shrugged a shoulder.

“I like my privacy, and I don’t give _anything_ away for free.”

Well, he couldn’t disagree with her argument, but did she have to say it like _that?_

Luckily, Zane was nothing if not a professional, and had worked with a hell of a lot less information than that before. He once managed to track an assassination target over three planets using only their shoe size and their preferred brand of whiskey. Maybe once he was on board he’d sit himself down in a nice quiet corner of his cabin and do a little digging on this increasingly captivating woman?

“Well, there’ll be plenty of time to drink the place dry once we’re up in the air. Go get yourselves settled, we’ll talk more later.” Lilith said, parking the truck at the base of the gangplank. Everyone began clambering out one by one, but Lilith grabbed Rhea’s arm before she could join the others.

“You got a minute?”

Everyone looked over at her. She didn’t seem particularly surprised to be called out by the leader of the Crimson Raiders on their first day. On the contrary, the resigned look on her face suggested that she’d been fully expecting this.

“Ooh, in trouble with the teacher before you even get on board the ship? I like you.” Moze grinned, still perched on Amara’s shoulders.

Rhea smirked back and winked slyly at Moze before turning to Lilith, her eyes lingering on Zane for the briefest of moments.

“Catch you later.”

He followed the rest of the group up the gangplank with a frown, hanging back when they climbed on board, still chatting excitedly amongst themselves, and shot a look over his shoulder to where the two women stood by the truck.

_Well damn it all if this isn’t the most painfully intriguin’ thing to happen all day._

Zane didn’t think of himself as a particularly nosy guy. Sure, a large part of his job involved digging up dirt on folk and interrogating their mother’s from time to time, but that was strictly business. This was something else entirely. He was used to the kind of people he interacted with being pretty much an open book, all too willing to tell him their life story whether he wanted to hear it or not. So meeting a person who not only refused to reveal anything meaningful about themselves, but who hid so expertly behind pretty smiles and flirtatious banter suggested one thing to him:

She was hiding something big, and his ego simply wouldn’t allow him to ignore it. She was like a mystery he needed to unravel.

_Well, I don’t exactly need to, but I want to, dammit!_

Luckily for Zane, he had the perfect tool for this sort of task.

“Do your thing little bud.” He murmured, activating his drone. The camera it contained was linked right up to his ECHO-eye, so all he needed to do was stand around and look inconspicuous while the drone did all the work for him.

It perched up beneath one of the ship's wings, right above where the two women were standing talking, where he could see and listen to them without obstruction.

“-Just so we understand each other. No one needs to find out about this, your secret’s safe with me.” He caught Lilith saying. She was leaning back against the truck with her arms folded, while Rhea paced back and forth, fingers massaging her temples irritability.

“Ugh, this sucks! Do you seriously think people would go crazy if they knew the truth?”

“Some won’t, but I can’t say the same for everybody. A lot of folk still hold a hell of a grudge against Hyperion for all the damage they did over the years and would love nothing more than to put a bullet in the heads of everyone who was ever affiliated with them.”

Zane furrowed his brow, his lips parting slightly in surprise. _Hyperion? Well fuck, I can see why anybody would want to keep that under their hat._

Rhea sighed heavily. “This isn’t fair. Who cares what everyone else thinks? Why am I still being punished for what they did to me?”

“No one’s punishing you, kid. We just-” Lilith took a breath and placed a hand on Rhea’s shoulder to stop her continuous pacing. “Look, I know this is hard for you. When I had to go into hiding from Jack all those years ago it nearly killed me. All those months spent by myself, acting like I didn’t even exist, it was the _worst._ But believe me when I tell you that I’m just trying to keep you safe. If anyone found out that we had one of Hyperion’s escaped-”

“What are you doing?”

Zane damn near jumped out of his skin at the sudden voice behind him. He spun around, hand on his pistol _(You can’t be too careful, this is Pandora after all)_ , and came face to face with FL4K.

“Uh, n-nothin’. What’re _you_ doin’?” He quickly recalled his drone, inwardly cursing when it hovered over non-too subtly and landed on his shoulder.

“I was looking for Mr Chew, he likes to wander off hunting for prey, then I saw you standing out here suspiciously and I decided to investigate,” They pointed to the drone on his shoulder. “That is an impressive piece of technology, though I fail to see its purpose in courtship.”

Zane blinked wildly and held his hands up. “Woahwoahwoah! Hold it right there big guy, ‘courtship?’ Now where the heck did you get an idea like that from, eh?”

“I noticed that you were observing our new companion an awful lot on the ride over here. I understand frequently staring at someone is a sign that you find them alluring, along with dilated pupils. Though, dilated pupils are also a sign of fear. Perhaps you fear Rhea instead?”

“Sounds like you spent an awful lot of time lookin’ at _me_ durin’ the ride. Can’t say I’ve ever done it with an android quite like you before but if that’s what you’re after then I’m open to it.”

He took the opportunity while FL4K was still trying to figure out what he was saying to make his getaway, shaking his head and muttering to himself all the while.

“Damn bot’s got several wires loose- wasn’t even lookin’ at _her_ specifically, I was-”

_Bein’ a goddamn nosy son of a bitch, that’s what._

Outside, Rhea was finishing up her talk with Lilith, a simmering fury in her chest that kept threatening to bubble over.

It wasn’t fair! Hyperion were gone, Handsome Jack was gone, why did she need to hide anymore? It wasn’t her fault if people couldn’t determine friend from foe out here. Besides, people had been trying to kill her for years without any luck. What made _Joe Hick_ think they could do what far more experienced folk couldn’t?

“Fuck, I hate keeping secrets like this, Lilith.”

“I know, killer. But trust me when I say it’s for the best. We’ve got enough on our plate right now with the Calypsos and the COV running around, I don’t want to be worrying about you on top of all that.” Lilith squeezed her shoulder in a reassuring way and offered her a smile. Rhea bit back the dozens of arguments still on the tip of her tongue for why she shouldn’t have to hide anymore and merely nodded.

She was right. Lilith was already sticking her neck out for her in a big way just by allowing her to be a part of this mission. Hell, they shouldn’t even have been in this situation together right now, things were meant to turn out so differently for both women.

_Damn, am I glad it turned out this way in the end._

“C’mon, we should get on board. We’ll be taking off soon.”

“So, next stop Promethea?” Rhea followed Lilith up the gangplank, looking up at the ship in front of them. She’d never seen one so huge before, unless you counted Helios, and she really didn’t like to think about that place.

“Yep, I’ve got a couple of contacts down there who can help us locate the next vault key fragment, so the sooner we get there the better.”

As they reached the top of the gangplank they spotted Ellie standing just inside of the doors, waving cheerfully at the pair with a hand on her hip. “It’s about time you ladies got those fine asses up here. Everything’s set, Lil, an’ personally I can not _wait_ to get the hell off of Pandora, I’ve been counting down the days since I started working on this bad girl.” She gushed, rubbing the metalwork beside her with an affectionate grin.

“Perfect, then let’s get out of here before-”

“Hey, what the fuck?!” Rhea cried when the doors suddenly slammed shut in their faces, preventing them from boarding. “Ellie? What’s happening?”

She could hear some vague, muffled response from Ellie on the other side of the doors, but not enough to work out what she was trying to tell them. Then she felt Lilith’s hand clamp around her arm.

“Rhea, watch it!”

She dragged her backwards as laser fire suddenly peppered the door, right where her head had been. That was when she heard a commotion coming from the other side of the hanger.

“Crap! We’ve got COV inbound, looks like they wanted to come see us off. Whaddya say we bid them farewell in style?”

Rhea grunted furiously and rubbed her palms together, blessed warmth spreading over her skin where they touched. “Jesus, I am way, _way_ too sober for this shit.”

She hopped over the side of the rail to meet the bandits head on, while Lilith used her siren abilities to take to the sky and begin blasting the rest from a distance, her wings glowing a brilliant shade of red against the light of the sun.

In all, she thought they made a pretty good team. Rhea herded any enemies she could see into close knit areas with a wall of fire where Lilith could then blast them into a million pieces. Like shooting fish in a barrel, really it was sort of… fun. She could see the pair of them teaming up like this again in the future.

That is, assuming they made it out of here in one piece.

“These guys really aren’t letting up! Where’re they even coming from?” Rhea shouted up to Lilith as she blasted a psycho away that had been trying to sneak up behind her. Where the hell was everyone else? Surely they had to have realised something was going on by now? She could feel exhaustion starting to creep into her limbs and her fire was beginning to wane. That wasn’t good.

_Maybe if you weren’t so intent on showing off for Zane this morning you’d still have some gas left in the tank?_

A sudden warmth crept up her neck that had nothing to do with the fire spouting from her hands and she gave her head a very firm shake, grumbling under her breath about becoming distracted.

Suddenly, the onslaught of bandits seemed to stop altogether and those that remained retreated to the back of the hangar, leaving a large space in the center. She took to a knee while she had some respite, sweating and panting loudly, then looked up when she noticed two new people enter the fray. Rhea recognised them immediately from the billions of posters that littered Pandora.

“Shit! Lilith, they’re here!” She balled both hands into fists, ready for round two, but at this point the fire barely flickered for a second before fizzling out again with a pathetic puff of smoke.

_No no no! Don’t burn out now!_

Tyreen Calypso glanced in her direction when she spoke, a greedy, wicked grin spreading over her face as she took in the sight of her.

“Ooh look, an appetiser!”

Rhea had her pistol drawn and aimed at her face before she could take a single step. “Back the fuck up!” She didn’t need her powers to be a danger.

_Though they would be pretty helpful right about now._

“Rhea, no!”

Lilith landed right in front of her, shielding her with her wings. “If you two clowns want a fight, I’m right here.”

Both Troy and Tyreen laughed loudly, their voices high pitched and downright annoying as they pointed and cooed mockingly in their direction. Lilith took her opportunity to speak quietly to Rhea.

“You deal with the COV, killer. I’ll handle these two.”

“Are you serious?! Lilith, I know what I’m d-”

“Just do it. That’s an order!”

Rhea gritted her teeth furiously, but nodded her head all the same. Now was not the time to be impulsive.

She scrambled to her feet and took off at a sprint towards the group of bandits, using what little energy she had left to summon one last huge ball of fire, which she tossed into the crowd, sending them scattering in a panic. She staggered a little, completely drained, but grinned like a crazed fool all the same.

“Come on, you bastards!” She roared, firing her gun madly at the crowd. There was no way she could possibly take this many bandits out by herself, but if she could at least distract them for a while, stall them until help arrived, or at least until Lilith finished dealing with the Calypsos...

She flinched when the bandits began firing back at her, her shield had certainly seen better days and the tech had been badly damaged in the bus explosion earlier, but thankfully the old hunk of junk held up as they continued to advance. She could only hope that it continued to do so as there was absolutely no cover out here.

A loud rumble from somewhere behind startled Rhea and she spun around, fully expecting Lilith to be taking care of business like the badass she was, but instead the world seemed to come to a screeching halt.

She wasn’t certain what shocked her the most: the fact that Tyreen Calypso had Lilith by the throat, or the bandit that managed to blindside her with a laser shot to the shoulder, completely shattering her shield.

Either way, her scream echoed loudly across the yard.


	3. Pity Party

For a moment, the whole world spun violently. White hot pain erupted in Rhea’s left arm and she collapsed to her knees, sucking in high pitched breaths through her teeth, which she was certain were about to crack for how hard she was gritting them. She was vaguely aware of the colour red in her peripheral vision and pressed a shaking hand over the wound, but her eyes never left the bandits, who continued to circle her as she knelt in the dirt, jeering and laughing loudly all the while. They would be on her in a matter of seconds if she didn’t do something.

“I-is that the best you can do?” She growled faintly, forcing herself back to her feet while simultaneously trying to ignore the way her legs wobbled in protest. Her whole arm felt slick with blood and good _God_ she hadn’t felt pain like this in a long time, it was enough to make the thought of passing out so very tempting, but she wasn’t about to just lie there and allow herself to be torn apart.

Somewhere behind her she heard another loud rumble and a shout, but she didn’t look away this time. She could only hope that Lilith had managed to wrench herself out of Tyreen’s grasp and was back to kicking her ass.

_She’s fine. It was a total fluke, that’s all._

The bandits responded to her taunt with loud, raucous laughter and kept advancing slowly, like a pack of hungry skags. Rhea wriggled her fingers at her side, grimacing through the pain, trying to focus on summoning even one teeny tiny puff of smoke, but no luck. Alana always said she burned herself out too quickly, that she needed to go slower if she wanted her powers to last in battle.

_Not the time, Rhea!_

Eventually, one of the bandits grew bored of waiting and lunged at her, screaming incoherently with a knife aimed directly at her chest. She stumbled to one side and planted the elbow of her good arm firmly in the back of his neck when he missed, sending him sprawling into the dirt where she shot him right in the head. The others immediately ceased laughing and stared at her with wide eyes, stunned by her show of defiance.

“I said: is that the best you can fucking do?!” If she was going to die here, then she was going to make damn sure she took as many of them down with her as possible before that happened.

She steadied herself and raised her pistol, daring anyone to come forward. But before the remaining bandits could rush her they were suddenly set upon by two large rakk, who swooped in out of nowhere and began snatching cultists up as though they were featherlight.

_Fuck, what now?!_

Rhea watched the chaos for a moment in confusion, backing up when one of the rakk spat something she didn’t even want to try and identify at her feet, and bumped right into someone’s chest. She yelped and swung her good arm around in an attempt to strike the mystery person, only for Zane to grab her firmly by the wrist before she could connect with his jaw.

“Ey, simmer down, lass. We’re here to help.”

She blinked. “‘We?’”

At that same moment, FL4K appeared over his shoulder and began barking orders to the two rakk who were still circling the remaining COV while his pet skagg, Mr Chew, began tearing the throat out of a particularly large bruiser. Moze was there too, bombarding those who were attempting to flee in her Iron Bear, and Amara was looking after a downed Lilith. The Calypsos were nowhere to be seen.

“Shit, they’re gone! The Calypsos, they were just here! They were-”

“I know, we saw them. But the clowns disappeared just as we arrived.”

She furrowed her brow. “Wait, what do you mean ‘disappeared?’ How did they-”

“Rhea, how’s about we focus on killin’ these son’s o’bitches first, then we’ll talk. Alright?”

She took a deep breath in through her nose, trying to mask her grimace as more pain lanced through her body, and nodded.

“Fine, let’s go.”

Not that there was much left for them to kill at this point. It turns out that two rakk and a hungry skagg can do a hell of a lot of damage on their own, and within a matter of minutes everything had fallen silent again.

“Shit, girl! Your arm’s a mess!” Moze said loudly when she climbed out of Iron Bear, jumping on a dead bandit's head with a sickening crunch.

“Yep, I’m _keenly_ aware of that.” Rhea replied through gritted teeth. She spared a glance down at all the blood coating her arm and chest, lamenting yet another ruined shirt, and angrily ripped her broken shield from her belt, throwing it on the ground. It was useless to her now.

“I’m sure it’s nothin’ Tannis can’t fix,” Zane added, looking closely at the wound. “Good shot, though. No offence.”

“Yeah, no shit it was a good shot, I don’t need the commentary!”

She spat, storming past him over to where Amara and Lilith were knelt. FL4K and Moze followed behind, but not before Moze shot a wry grin over at him.

“Nice going, grandpa.”

“Hey, watch it, kid. I’ve shot people for less than that before.”

 _Alright, so she gets a little tetchy when she’s been shot. Good to know._ He would add that tidbit of information to the mental file he was compiling on Rhea, which was currently paper thin.

As he approached the group, Amara stood up and shot him a grim look, while Lilith remained knelt on the floor. Her head was bowed low and she had a hand wrapped tightly around her left arm.

Rhea reached for her shoulder. “Lilith, you alright? What happened?”

“They…”

She pursed her lips together and got unsteadily to her feet, turning to face the group and releasing her arm. There was a collective gasp.

“What happened to your tattoos?” Moze asked in a quiet voice, her brown eyes wide in disbelief. Her arm and torso, which was normally a tapestry of vibrant blue markings, was entirely bare, her wings had vanished and even her eyes ceased to glow.

“Tyreen. She… she took my siren abilities, it’s what she does. She leeches people, takes from them, would have killed me if you guys hadn’t turned up.”

“Wait, so… you’re no longer a siren?” Zane frowned. It didn’t make sense, how could someone just _stop_ being a siren? As far as he was aware it was sort of a lifetime commitment.

“So what does this mean?” Amara looked equal parts fearful and furious, and he couldn’t blame her. It wasn’t an easy thing to clip a siren’s wings, even for another of their kind.

“It means that the Calypsos have just become twice as powerful. We need to make a move right now if we want any chance of stopping them. Let’s… let’s get on board.”

Amara and Moze both put their arms around Lilith to help her up the gangplank while Rhea stood rooted to the spot and stared up at their retreating backs, a prominent crease between her brows. Zane touched her good arm to get her attention.

“Hey, you alright? We should get you looked at.” He said quietly, shooting a pointed look at FL4K as they passed by with an excitable Mr Chew tucked under their arm.

She sighed and snatched her arm back. “I’m fine. Let’s just get on the damn ship.”

He stared at her with raised eyebrows as she turned and marched up the ramp without another word, leaving him to bring up the rear, a ragged sigh escaping him as he watched her go.

_Just leave it alone, boyo._

* * *

Hours later once they were up in the air, Zane was in his room tinkering with the cloaking mechanism he’d just installed on his drone, hissing when the occasional spark zapped at his fingers. The mood aboard Sanctuary had really soured after everything that happened back on Pandora and quite frankly he wasn’t in the mood to deal with all of the doom and gloom hanging in the air.

He was beginning to second guess whether he should have even got on board the ship at all after what he’d witnessed down in the hangar. They’d all gone running out to help after the alarm had been raised and saw the Calypsos hovering over Lilith like a couple of wild animals stalking their prey. If she couldn’t handle them, what chance did he or the others have? What’s to say they wouldn’t just blast this whole entire ship out of the sky as soon as they reached Promethea?

And as for Rhea...

It might have been embarrassing just how fast he ran to her side when he heard her scream, but the sight of her surrounded on all sides and bleeding heavily filled him with an unexplainable dread that chilled him right to his core. She looked as though the slightest breeze could have knocked her off her feet, and he could hear her pained breaths from a distance.

But as he tore across the yard to get to her, she bared her teeth once more in the face of overwhelming odds, and when he caught sight of her pale, vicious face his heart damn near stopped altogether.

 _Bloody hell,_ she was a sight in the heat of battle.

He briefly wondered where else she might prove to be a sight, before swiftly setting down the screwdriver in his hand and squeezing his eyes shut, a heavy sigh on his lips. That was a dangerous path for him to be ambling down right now, particularly when he considered the fact that he was currently running the few details he had on her through his computer on the other side of the room.

That, and the fact that they were both most likely going to die on this mission.

_Well, I suppose a suicide mission was on my list of ‘ways to die that aren’t in my bed at the grand old age of ninety five.’ The Reaper might just get his hands on me at last._

He was spared from then trying to imagine all of the gruesome and painful ways he would probably meet his end in the coming weeks by a knock at the door.

“Aye?” He grunted, not bothering to look up from the bench as the door slid open.

“Holy shit, why is it so dark in here?”

His head shot up, narrowly missing the overhead light he was working from. Rhea was edging her way into the room with two full glasses in her hands, squinting at him through the darkness.

“ECHO-eye, all these fluorescent lights give me a bangin’ headache.” He tapped the side of his face where his artificial eye sat. It had its perks, sure; passwords? No problem. Police records? You’ve got it. But fuck was it sensitive at times. That was the next thing on the ever growing list of upgrades to his tech.

Rhea slowly made her way over to the bench and held up two full pint glasses. “I see. Well, how about a whole different kind of headache? My treat.” She held out a glass to him and his one good eye lit up.

“That I can bear with,” He took the pint from her with a nod of thanks, noticing as he did that there was a large bandage poking out from beneath the sleeve of her left arm. “How’s the shoulder?”

“Mm, been better. Tannis reckons it’ll be fine within a week, but it still hurts like a bitch. Hence my reason for self medicating.” She held up her glass in a toast and grinned sluggishly at him, he guessed that this wasn’t her first drink of the evening. “It’s also the reason I came here with this little peace offering. I wanted to apologise for being so… short with you earlier.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, I was startin’ to wonder if I’d said somethin’ wrong.”

“No, it wasn’t you, honestly. It was me, I was being a bitch. I was angry and in pain… plus I felt sort of responsible for how things went out there.”

Zane paused in the middle of downing his pint and set the glass down beside him with a furrowed brow, wiping the foam from his moustache. “O...k, care to elaborate on that?”

She chewed her inner cheek and sat down beside him. “Just, I was _right there,_ I saw Tyreen grab Lilith and I just… I dunno, maybe I could have done more?”

 _Ah, a pity party._ It had been a while since he attended one of those.

“Uh huh. Tell me, Rhea: were you or were you not shot in the arm while all this was goin’ on?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Well yeah. But that’s no excu-”

“And were you or were you not completely surrounded by COV at the same time?”

“Yes, I was. But-”

“And, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Tyreen Calypso a siren? A bein’ so powerful that no one normal person can take them down?”

Her jaw tensed up irritably, and for a moment her eyes kept flickering between his face and her glass.

“I asked you a question.”

It was another moment or two before she huffed out an irritated breath and nodded. “Alright I get it. You’ve made your point.”

“Wasn’t doin’ it to upset you, lass. We’re at war, shite like this is gonna happen. If you start takin’ ownership of everyone else’s misfortune you’re gonna be in for a hard time of it, trust me.”

She said nothing for a moment, but he could tell she had something on her mind from the way she stared down at her hands, rubbing her fingertips together with a furrowed brow. His mind went back to the conversation he’d overheard between her and Lilith earlier.

_So, she was Hyperion? Wouldn’t even think it lookin’ at her._

He’d had more than his fair share of dealings with Hyperion over the years to know exactly their sort - a stuck up bunch of suits whose only motivation was how much money they could leech from you before your usefulness came to a dramatic and often messy end. But Rhea... she didn’t exactly look the type.

He searched her eyes carefully, looking for some clue as to what was going on in that head of hers. They didn’t glow so bright now that she wasn’t using her powers, they almost dulled to a warm honey colour, soft and tired, half hidden under long, dark lashes and framed by heavy shadows.

_When was the last time this girl got a good night’s sleep?_

His attention was drawn once more to her marked arms, to the strange scars on her wrists, and then a little further up to where three track marks sat in the crook of her right elbow, so subtle that only his ECHO-eye could pick them up, evenly spaced out in a triangular shape. They were far too neat and perfect to be the result of some kind of drug addiction. So where did they come from?

_“One of Hyperion’s escaped-” What? Who the hell are you?_

She sighed quietly and picked her drink up again with an apologetic smile. “I guess you’re right. Still, I’m sorry I exploded on you like that. It was a dick move.”

He shrugged. “Ain’t the first time it’s happened, probably won’t be the last. You just keep plyin’ me with beer and I’ll let you explode on me as much as you want.”

She snorted mid-drink and Zane paused, suddenly realising how that sounded and holding up a finger pointedly.

“That... that couldn’t have sounded any more different from how I meant it if I tried. Although, I do have it on good authority that I’m a _very_ approachable guy.”

_That’s it, just walk it off like a pro. You smooth old git._

And boy was it worth it to see the blush that crept up her cheeks when winked at her. She burst into a fit of giggles and brought her hand up to cover her mouth.

“Ok, on that agonising note, I’m gonna turn in for the night. All this being blown up and shot and really _badly_ flirted with has seriously worn me out.”

Zane put a hand over his heart, an expression of mock hurt on his face. “You wound me, lass.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him as she stood up and downed the last of her beer, before shooting him a two finger salute and turning to leave.

“Night, Zane.”

He watched her go with a grin as she felt her way clumsily towards the door. It _was_ pretty dark in here now that he thought about it.

“Aye, night, Rhea. Next round’s on me.” He murmured, going back to his work and chuckling softly when he heard her hiss as she stubbed her toe on the way out.


	4. Nightmare

_“Now, just close your eyes and relax. You won’t feel a thing.”_

_“You’re giving her too much, her body can’t handle it!”_

_“Oh yes it can. Hold her down!”_

_“She can’t breathe, you’re gonna kill her!”_

Rhea awoke with a strangled yell and sat bolt upright in bed, panting heavily and staring around the pitch black of her room with wide, terrified eyes. There was no one around, but she could still feel rough hands gripping her arms and she snatched them tightly against her chest, kicking the covers off as though they would try to strangle her otherwise.

She spent a few minutes after that sitting with her head against her knees, trying to control her ragged breathing, before leaning over the side of the bed and checking the time on her ECHO device.

_Jeez, I didn’t even make it to four in the morning!_

Nightmares were nothing new to Rhea, she had them practically every single night back on Pandora. It was a rare thing for her to get even a solid six hours sleep. But ever since she boarded Sanctuary nine days ago they’d only become more severe.

At first she’d attributed them to being in a strange new place, out in the deep void of space, a new bed and all that crap, but she would have thought her mind would begin to settle by now. She’d even cut back on the amount of alcohol she drank before bed hoping it might help, with no luck.

Well, at least nightcaps were back on the menu.

She sighed loudly once she’d calmed down a little and got out of bed, rubbing the grit from her eyes and grabbing her boots on her way to the door.

_Time for my post-nightmare routine of wandering the ship until breakfast time._

At least at this time of the morning there was hardly anyone else around, or at least no one who would ask awkward questions. She just couldn’t bear sitting in that room with nothing but endless darkness staring back at her through the window.

She left her room and walked until she found her way down to the engine room, which had quickly become her favourite part of the ship. There were long empty corridors for her to wander through while she collected her thoughts, sparsely lit, and the low hum of the engines lulled her into a state of calm that might have sent her back to sleep had she not been so terrified to close her eyes.

She paced up and down a few times before picking a spot on the floor to sit down with her back against the pipes, revelling in the feeling of cold metal against her skin as she thought about her latest nightmare.

 _That place…_ How long had it been? Six years? She could barely remember what it looked like while she was awake, she almost hoped she was starting to forget about it. But then she’d fall asleep and it was like she’d never left.

Her fingers drifted over the scars on her wrists and she scoffed quietly. _“Forget,” don’t be so stupid._ It didn’t matter how much she liked to pretend she was doing better, there would always be visible cracks in her facade that no amount of paint or spackle would hide.

She looked a little further up her arm where the faint, tiny track marks sat against her pale skin, and she wrinkled her nose. _God..._ it was like she could still taste the crap they pumped into her, all of the foul drugs and chemicals they used to-

“Well, it looks like I’m not the only one who enjoys long, late night strolls.”

Rhea gasped at the sudden voice and leapt to her feet. Zane was walking down the corridor towards her, his brow furrowed and both hands raised in front of him.

“Calm, lass. Didn’t mean to scare ya.”

She released a loud sigh and leaned back against the wall, her heart going a million miles. That certainly woke her up a little. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting anyone else to be up at this time.”

“Me neither. Can’t sleep?”

Out the corner of her eye she could see he was now standing next to her and she looked up at him. His ice blonde hair was ruffled and stuck up in all directions, and his good eye still had a haze of sleep about it, but her attention was drawn more specifically to his frame. She’d expected him to be kind of scrawny under all those layers of gadgets he usually wore, but seeing him standing there in a thin sleep vest she was surprised to see that he was actually quite well muscled, “wiry” some might even call it.

She then noticed that her heart was still racing and gave her head a small shake, looking down at her feet. “To be honest, I don’t ever really sleep well. I have nightmares.”

He leaned against the wall beside her and folded his arms. “About what, if you don’t mind my askin’?”

“I- I can’t say, sorry.”

She heard him chuckle. “What, don’t trust me?”

For a moment, Rhea said nothing. That was certainly a fair assumption for him to make. She hadn’t really given him much in the way of a straight answer about anything to do with her personal life since they met, constantly skirting around his questions or avoiding them entirely.

_It would help if he wasn’t so damn nosy. No one else has quizzed me on my life story since boarding this damn ship._

“I guess I’m still trying to figure out if you really mean well or if you’re just trying to take advantage of me.” She said quite plainly. It wasn’t a lie, he was a mercenary after all, that was sort of what they did.

She just hoped he wasn’t the “quick to anger” type of mercenary.

_Shit, maybe I should have thought twice before questioning his motives so openly?_

But to her immense relief, he didn’t appear to take the comment to heart. He laughed good naturedly and cocked his head to one side. “Well, can’t say my reputation doesn’t deserve that kind of mistrust. But I’m here, aren’t I? Tryin’ to save the six galaxies just like you. That has to count for somethin’.”

Rhea nibbled on her lower lip, guilt pooling in her stomach. He was right, they were all risking a lot on this mission, you wouldn’t just jump on board for the fun of it unless you were truly insane, and besides, Lilith wouldn’t have brought him in if she didn’t think he was trustworthy.

But still…

“I’m sorry, really. It’s honestly nothing to do with you personally, I just… can’t talk about it right now.”

He stared back down at her, his expression oddly veiled, but thankfully he didn’t press the matter. “Fine, I won’t pry.” He said softly, leaning his head back against one of the pipes that was protruding from the wall with a quiet sigh, while Rhea continued to look up at him, observing his face properly for the first time under the dim light.

He was definitely an attractive guy, that was plain to see in the sharpness of his jawline and high cheekbones, and he had the kind of roguish smile that he clearly knew how to work to his advantage from the way it flashed frequently across his face, easygoing and just a little bit smug. But her attention was drawn specifically to his ECHO-eye. It was the first thing she’d noticed about him when he got on board the bus back on Pandora, bright blue and piercing. She wondered how he lost his eye in the first place, how old he was when it happened, did he kill the person or creature that did it?

But that was getting a bit too personal, and if she wasn’t willing to divulge secrets about herself, she shouldn’t expect the same from him. He certainly was an interesting character, though. She bet that he had a story for every one of the scars that stretched across his arms and shoulders.

Her eyes trailed back up to his face and she felt her cheeks grow hot when she realised he was looking back down at her.

“I should probably get back, I’ll leave you to your musin’.” He smirked knowingly, pushing off from the wall and making to walk away, but Rhea reached out for his shoulder to stop him.

“Wait, can you maybe... stay a moment longer? Having nothing but my own thoughts for company right now is kind of depressing.”

_What are you doing? Just let him walk away!_

Her hand faltered and fell back to her side, but he didn’t move any further. He stood with his back to her, and for a moment she thought she’d pushed too far.

_Great, now you just sound desperate. Desperate and pathetic._

“Y’know, if you’re strugglin’ you could always come and see me in my room. If you wanted some company, I mean.”

If he didn’t have such a damn distinctive accent, she would have wondered if it was Zane who just spoke those words. But then he looked back over his shoulder at her with an expression of uncertainty and she realised that not only had he said it, he was being completely serious.

His room? Was that entirely wise? It was hardly any of his business if she was having difficulty sleeping, and besides, they were partners for a greater purpose, the future of the six galaxies was on the line. They weren’t friends.

But she’d be the first to admit that the worst thing about these nightmares was in waking up and having nothing and no one to distract her. Besides, it was _his_ suggestion.

Surely there’d be no harm, right?

“You know I won’t tell you what I dreamt.”

“Wouldn’t force you to.”

“I’d be waking you up pretty much every single night.”

“Doesn’t bother me.”

Rhea frowned. “Why exactly are you doing this, Zane? What’s your game here?”

“Maybe I’m just tryin’ to prove that I mean well?” He grinned smugly, his blue eye almost as piercing as his fake in the dim light around them. “‘Sides, no one should have to wander these soul suckin’ corridors when they’re feelin’ frightened.”

She bristled a bit at that. “Who says I’m frightened?”

“A nightmare is a manifestation of our fears, love. Trust me, I know.”

Rhea pursed her lips and gave him a long hard look. She really didn’t like to be thought of as just some scared little girl, but he had a point. How many times had she woken up crying, drenched in her own sweat and trying to fight off invisible monsters?

Far more than she was willing to admit.

_Fuck, I’m a mess._

Zane took another step back and shrugged. “Look, I’m not gonna force you to do anythin’ you’re not comfortable with, but if this happens again, you can come and see me.”

And without another word, he turned and walked off down the corridor again. Rhea watched him go, a narrow crease between her brows.

“Wait, you never told me what _you_ were doing down here at this time of the morning.”

He didn’t stop or look back at her this time, but she could just tell by his tone that he was giving her that smug little smirk he wore so well.

“You’re not the only one ‘round here who has trouble sleepin’, lass.”

* * *

It was a few hours after their unintentional morning run in when Lilith approached the vault hunters and told them to gear up, they were approaching Promethea and needed to get to the surface ASAP if they wanted to find that vault key fragment before the Calypsos. Everyone was awfully keen to get out and stretch their legs a little, maybe even blast a few COV in the process, but, as always, there was a slight problem.

“Another freaking company war? Didn’t one of those just end?!” Moze complained loudly as they climbed into the drop pod that would take them down to the planet’s surface.

“I dunno, did it? Honestly, to me they all just blend into one another.” Zane shrugged. He really didn’t relish the thought of being dragged into yet another one of these stupid wars. They were usually nothing more than a glorified dick measuring contest between CEO’s and as far as he was concerned if you’d seen one you’d pretty much seen them all.

Wars, that is. Though he’d seen plenty of the other thing, too.

Rhea brought up the rear and closed the door behind her. “Well, Lilith reckons the surface is in complete chaos right now, so we’ll need to keep our wits about us when we get down there… assuming this thing doesn’t kill us first.”

As she spoke, there was an uncomfortably loud hissing noise from somewhere outside of the pod and her mouth tightened into a hard line when she sat down beside Zane, tucking her elbows in so that they didn’t brush shoulders so much. It was a fruitless effort. With all five of them inside plus Mr Chew, each one of them armed to the teeth, it was more than a little bit cramped, and he was painfully aware of how much unintentional leg touching was going on.

“Alrighty, we all good in there?” Ellie called out, banging a fist against the side of the pod. There was an affirmative grunting from everyone except Rhea, who he noticed was looking a little paler than usual. He wondered if that was due to the tight space or the impending drop. Maybe both?

Or maybe she was just tired? If she’d truly been sleeping so badly like she’d told him this morning she couldn’t possibly be at one hundred percent. That was an unsettling thought to have right before being dropped onto a planet sized battlefield where anything less than one hundred percent meant a high chance of death.

“Ok, things might get a bit bumpy, so hang on to those cute little butts of yours!”

_Of course, what would a billion mile drop be without a little turbulence?_

He could feel the pod moving slowly towards the airlock and tried to quell the little flicker of nerves in his own stomach.

“Hey, if you throw up, could you do me a favour and keep it away from me?” He grinned, nudging Rhea in the ribs. She huffed out a faint laugh through her nose and pulled a face at him.

“Why? Your outfit is already a wreck, if anything I might actually improve it.”

His eyebrows shot up and he chuckled loudly in surprise. So, she was still quick on the retorts, that was good to know. He opened his mouth again, another smart arse comment on the tip of his tongue, when the pod suddenly dropped and everyone let out a collective shout as they plummeted towards the surface of Promethea.

Ellie hadn’t been joking when she said it would be a bumpy ride. They were thrown violently from left to right, twice he bumped his head against FL4K’s metal arm, and his pistol kept jamming painfully against his thigh.

Moze however seemed to be having the time of her life. Both her arms and legs were in the air and she was shouting for everyone to do the same, laughing delightedly all the while.

By the time they hit the planet’s surface, he was certain that more than a couple of teeth had been knocked loose, and it was a few moments before anyone dared move, let alone speak.

“Let’s do that again some time!” Moze was the first to her feet and threw the door wide open so that everyone could clamber out, groaning and complaining about their new aches and pains. Zane looked down at Rhea, trying to keep the smirk from his face.

“You can let go of my arm now, lass.”

She jumped and released the iron grip she had on his wrist. She didn’t even seem to realise that she’d latched on to him during the fall and her cheeks turned beet red as she fumbled to unbuckle herself from her seat.

“Crap, sorry. Small spaces aren’t my favourite thing in the world.” She murmured, clambering out of the pod with Zane following behind, chuckling quietly behind her back and rubbing the spot where her hand had been.

 _Girl’s got a hell of a grip._ He shot a wicked grin at her back before giving his head a firm shake. _Stop bein’ daft, you old creep!_

“How interesting.” Amara said with an awestruck expression when he caught up to the rest of the group. He didn’t disagree with her. They were in the outskirts of a built up metropolitan-like area, towering skyscrapers stretched as far as the eye could see, the whole place was vibrantly bright and colourful, really it was kind of pretty.

_We’re sure as hell not on Pandora anymore._

However, just like on Pandora he was keenly aware of the sound of heavy gunfire and explosions ringing out in the distance.

“There you are! It’s about bloody time, I’ve got Maliwan arseholes coming out of my ears and you lot are busy taking in the sites!”

They all looked down the road at the new voice and saw a young woman with bright blue hair gesturing them over urgently, a rifle in her arms that looked far too heavy to be manageable, yet she brought it up to rest against her shoulder like it was nothing.

“C’mon! We need to get back to base, I don’t wanna think about what’ll happen if they get their clammy hands on us. Name’s Lorelei.”

They made their way over to her and exchanged the briefest of greetings before a loud explosion right next to them sent everyone diving into the mud. Zane could hear Lorelei’s cursing loud and clear over the gunfire she threw back at an unseen enemy.

“-Goddamn motherfucking son’s of bitches, the lot of ya! You lot, let’s get a move on. It’s a long way to base on foot. I hope those guns aren’t just for show.”

Oh yes, this was _exactly_ like Pandora.


	5. Spork

Lilith really hadn’t been joking about Promethea being a war zone.

They’d barely made it to the first street corner when they were set upon by Maliwan troops, and they had been embroiled in a seemingly never ending fight against them since then, and unlike the COV these guys were well armoured, highly trained, and wielded more than just a rusty laser pistol held together by duct tape and string.

“More over there! Amara!” Lorelei shouted, pointing down the road to where a squadron of soldiers was running towards them. Amara rushed forward, climbing up onto Iron Bear to give herself a boost as she leapt into the air with a shout and brought all eight of her fists down upon the pavement in the middle of the squadron, creating a seismic shock that knocked them all off their feet.

“Nice, very nice! Your turn, Rhea!”

Rhea nodded from her position up on a nearby rooftop, before raining down fire on enemies from a distance so that the group didn’t become too overwhelmed. As she scanned the streets she spied a particularly nasty looking grunt in the middle of assembling a machine gun where he thought he wouldn’t be spotted by anyone down below, and she lobbed a large fireball directly at him, grinning ear to ear as he began rolling around on the floor in his heavy armour trying to douse the flames, his machine gun lying in ruin.

_Why is that so satisfying to watch? That’s probably a little bit psychotic of me, isn’t it?_

She stayed up there until their numbers had well and truly begun to thin out, alternating between her gun and her powers so that she didn’t tire herself out again, then climbed down the fire escape into a narrow alleyway where she made to head back out onto the street and join the others. But her feet had barely touched the floor when she heard the unmistakable click of a gun right behind her.

“Stop right there!”

“ _Fuck!_ ” How did he slip past everyone else? She squeezed her eyes shut furiously and slowly raised her hands.

“Turn around now, you’re coming with me.” The soldier barked.

Rhea took a steadying breath and obliged, turning on the spot to face the soldier. The first thing she saw was the barrel of his rifle pointed directly at her face.

The second was a holographic shimmer right behind him.

“Now walk towards me, _slowly._ Any funny business and I’ll blow that pretty face right off.”

A soft chuckle escaped her and she pointed over his shoulder at the imminent danger to his life.

“C’mon, you must think I was born yesterday! No one in their right mind would ever fall for-huh?”

He turned around when he felt a sudden tap on his shoulder and came face to face with Zane’s digi-clone, who waved cheerfully back at him. That was all the distraction Rhea needed to draw her pistol and blast a hole in the back of his head, dropping him where he stood.

“Thanks for the assist.” She nodded to the clone, who winked at her as he deconstructed again.

“You need to pay closer attention to your surroundin’s, lass. You never know who’s standin’ right behind you.” Came the real Zane’s voice from over her shoulder. She rolled her eyes and turned to look up at him as he walked right by her and nudged the soldier with his foot, confirming he was dead.

“Please, I knew you were there.” She shrugged, slamming a new clip into her pistol.

“This time I was, aye. I might not be there next time, you don’t want that ‘pretty face’ of yours to be blown off, do ya?”

She scoffed and gestured with her head for him to follow her. “Stop teasing me. Let’s go.”

Preoccupied with keeping an eye out for more stray Maliwan soldiers, she didn’t hear Zane when he muttered a defiant “Wasn’t teasin’ you.” under his breath.

Once he’d caught up with her they made their way back out onto the main street, where the fighting had all but finished. There was the odd Maliwan soldier still trying to advance towards them only to be taken down in swift fashion by Iron Bear’s cannon or chased down by Mr Chew, who’s muzzle was stained a grisly shade of red.

“Who’s a good boy?” FL4K cooed, patting their faithful companion on the head and offering him a skag treat as a reward for his efforts.

“Right, now that’s over with, where to next?” Zane asked Lorelei once she’d all but screamed herself hoarse at the few retreating soldiers she could see.

“We’re going to regroup back at camp, I’ll contact Rhys when we get there and he can help you with that thing-y that Lilith spoke to him about. In the meantime we can all get some good bloody rest and wait for reinforcements. Let’s get moving before more show up.”

Once they arrived at the ATLAS camp, the vault hunters all but threw themselves down on the floor so that they could rest a while. They’d been fighting nonstop since they arrived that afternoon and it was now late evening, so it was of no surprise to anyone when both Amara and Moze dozed off with their backs against each other.

“Maybe you should get some rest, too?” Zane suggested to Rhea, who responded with a firm shake of her head as she watched FL4K wander off somewhere with a bag of rakk chow, humming absentmindedly to themself.

“I’m ok.” She lied through her teeth, biting back a yawn. The reality was she felt like she could sleep for a whole entire month, but she wasn’t risking another nightmare in such a public place, the idea alone sent heat right up her neck.

He tutted quietly, clearly unconvinced, but shrugged anyway and turned away to begin tinkering with a bunch of circuitry attached to his glove. She watched him for a moment, frowning at the complexity of it all.

“What’re you working on now?”

“I’m tryin’ to figure out a way to adapt my gloves to sent out a jolt of electricity to folks who get a wee bit close, but- _ah-_ the only person I seem to be shockin’ right now is meself.”

He wrung his hand out and sucked on his middle finger when a spark zapped at it, while Rhea stifled a laugh with her fist.

“Where did you learn all of this stuff? It looks super complicated.”

The corner of his mouth quirked in amusement, but he didn’t look up. “I was the youngest of four incredibly competitive siblings. I was never gonna best any of ‘em in a fist fight, but luckily for me I got the lion’s share of the brains, looks too, come to think of it.” He looked up in thoughtful sarcasm, lifting a hand to rub at his chin. “Anyway, I began buildin’ stuff when I was a kid to get one over on the others. Turns out people are a lot less keen on punchin’ you in the face when they know you’ve got an armed droid at your back.”

“I know how that feels. My big sister was always giving me a hard time for being a weakling, I never liked getting into fights, even when she goaded me, and she goaded me a lot. She gave me _this_ during one of our biggest fights, would have taken my eye out too if mom and dad hadn’t stopped her. She always was good with a blade.”

She reached up and trailed a finger down the scar that ran through her lip and chin, a sad smile ghosting her face. Her sister used to downright torture her at times, all the while claiming she was trying to make her a stronger, better version of herself, like that made it any better. But God help anyone who dared mess with Rhea when Alana was around.

_The only time she ever showed that she cared about me was when someone else hurt me... or maybe she just didn’t like to share her punching bag?_

Zane paused in his tinkering to look across at her, his mouth twisted sympathetically. “I’m sorry. Families can be a difficult thing at times.”

His eyes lingered over her mouth, and though she was certain it was only the scar he was looking at, the strange, pensive look on his face sent chills up her spine all the same and she looked away before he could see her becoming flustered.

Thankfully at that same moment, Lorelei came back into the room, clapping her hands loudly to get their attention. Both Moze and Amara jolted awake and scrambled clumsily to their feet as though her clapping was an immediate threat, much to everyone else’s amusement.

“If you guys wanna talk to Rhys, now’s your chance. I’m going to contact him now.”

“Fine, let’s make this short and sweet, I’m beat!” Moze yawned loudly, rubbing at her eyes.

They followed her into the next room where she typed rhythmically at her computer for a moment before a large holographic image of a man spawned in front of them. He looked around the group for a moment before his face broke into a wide, albeit tired smile.

“Lorelei! How’re things going down on the ground?”

“About as well as can bloody be expected, Rhys. We really need those reinforcements ASAP if we’re gonna hold- wh- what the bloody hell is _that?_ ”

Rhys frowned and glanced over his shoulder. “What’s what?”

“That… _thing_ on your face, Rhys! Good God! It looks like a caterpillar is trying to gestate on your upper lip!” Lorelei visibly gagged and turned away with a wrinkled nose.

“What, you don’t like my siege mustache? I thought it added a little somethin’ somethin’ to my look. I bet Katagawa can’t grow a moustache.”

“I don’t think Katawaga would _want_ to.” Lorelei mumbled.

Rhea snorted and covered her mouth to try and hide her amusement, but Rhys’ eyes went to her anyway.

“You look kind of familiar, have we met before?” He frowned.

“Nope, first time on Promethea.”

“Well, I haven’t always been on Promethea, you ever been to Elpis?” She shook her head. “Ok, uh… Thrace? No?”

“Never, I must just have one of those faces.”

“Huh…” She wasn’t particularly fond of the look he was giving her, there was something calculating in his expression, something she really didn’t like.

But she’d never seen this man before in her life, of that she was certain. There was no way he could know who she was.

“Can we return to the matter at hand? Lilith tells us you have agreed to help us acquire a piece of the vault key.” FL4K interrupted, Rhea could have kissed them on whatever component passed for a mouth for taking the attention off of her.

“Oh yeah, that. Sure. You just help us defeat Katagawa’s forces and that fragment is all yours.”

The group exchanged a look of disbelief. That hadn’t been part of the agreement.

“How’s about this, lad: you tell us everythin’ you know about the location of this vault key fragment and we don’t rip your other arm off?” Zane suggested, raising an eyebrow. Rhea was quite stunned by the way his face suddenly darkened, and a shiver rolled up her spine at the gravel in his voice. That was just a tad alarming.

Rhys held up his hands, waving them a little in panic. “Woahwoahwoah! Hold on there, it’s not just that I want you guys to help me wipe the smug grin off of Katagawa’s stupid little face, and I really, _really_ want that; the streets are crawling with more Maliwan troops than I can handle right now, and now I have the added complication of these COV guys that turned up the day before yesterday and-”

“Wait, COV? They’re already here?” Amara piped up.

“Yes, and they’ve been trying to storm ATLAS HQ since they got here. But if _you_ guys help me to get rid of them I would be more than happy to help you guys find this fragment!”

Amara turned to the rest of the group, fury in her eyes. “I say we do it. I’ve got some unfinished business with those bastards.”

The corner of Rhea’s mouth twitched sympathetically. What happened to Lilith back on Pandora had hit Amara particularly hard, it was no wonder that she was antsy to get her revenge.

“I’m down for a brawl.” Moze conceded with a nod. Rhea shrugged and looked to the other two.

“Looks like we don’t have much choice right now. We should rest up and set out first thing tomorrow.”

“Great! I’d have my assistant prepare brunch for you but… we sort of found out that she was a Maliwan spy and… ho boy, I’m gonna have a scar on my right pec for the rest of my life. A spork can be a dangerous tool in the wrong hands, kids.”

And on that note, Rhys’ hologram disappeared.

“Right, guess if you’re staying the night I’ll show you to your room.” Lorelei gestured for the group to follow and led them off down a corridor away from the hubbub in the main foyer.

“It’s not much, and you’ll be sharing, but at least it’s quiet and there’re real beds for you to sleep in. Tomorrow you’ll make your way to ATLAS HQ so you better rest up.”

None of the group spoke to each other as they sat down on their individual beds, yawning and stretching. It had been a pretty rough day for all of them, and within ten minutes everyone had fallen fast asleep.

Everyone except Rhea, who was sat up in bed scrolling through the ECHOnet, desperately fighting off sleep as best as she could. She knew she would regret her decision when they set out tomorrow, but that was what coffee was for, right? It wasn’t until half three in the morning when she heard a stirring that her plan was foiled.

“Were you plannin’ on stayin’ up all night?” Zane’s groggy voice mumbled from the bed beside hers. She spared a glance in his direction and shrugged.

“It’s worked for me so far.”

He sat up and rubbed his face, squinting a little due to the light coming from her ECHO. “Rhea, you can’t avoid sleepin’ forever because of a few nightmares. We’re all in for a hell of a day tomorrow, you need rest.”

“I’m _fine,_ really.” She said more urgently, not bothering to look up at him this time. But Zane wasn’t giving in without a fight.

“C’mon, I’d feel a lot better about us facin’ Maliwan again knowin’ you’ve at least had a little rest. I’ll wake you up if you so much as twitch wrong, I promise.”

She put her ECHO down on her lap and spared him a hard look out of the corner of her eye. The stern expression on his face said quite plainly that he wasn’t about to just let this go, she sort of expected that, and her eyes _had_ been burning something fierce for the last two hours.

“Alright fine. If I try to get some sleep will you quit bothering me?”

“About not sleepin’? Sure. Indefinitely? Absolutely not.”

“I don’t doubt it.” She tossed her ECHO into her bag with a huff and lay back on the bed, turning away from Zane in hopes that he wouldn’t see her lying with her eyes wide open.

But it seemed that her body had other plans, because she fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow, and what’s more, she even had a completely dreamless sleep for once.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to last. It felt as though mere seconds had passed when Lorelei burst into the room to rouse them, the door bouncing loudly against the wall.

“Everybody up! We’ve got Maliwan inbound!”

Rhea could feel the beginnings of a headache when she opened her eyes and she certainly felt anything but rested. Zane was busy putting his boots on and shot a look in her direction when she sat up.

“How long was I out?”

“Oh, about twenty minutes.” He replied, voice dripping with sarcasm.

_Fuck._


	6. Soda Can

“Boy, I am _so_ glad you guys made it here in one pie- oh, you’re bleeding. Ok, mostly in one pie- aaand you’re also bleeding. Well, at least you’re all h- _oooly crap!_ Where is the rest of your arm!?”

The vault hunters all filed into Rhys’ office inside of ATLAS HQ one after the other, each grunting in acknowledgement to the CEO as they passed, followed by Mr Chew, who was carrying FL4K’s left arm in his mouth.

“What the hell happened to you guys? Lorelei said you repelled Maliwan’s troops no problem!” Rhys gaped at each of them in turn, his eyes growing wider the more he took in the numerous injuries they each had.

“Yep, that part’s true enough,” Zane shrugged, holding a cold soda can to his good eye, where he could feel a large bruise swelling. “‘Course, then we were ambushed by COV on the way over here, which resulted in our technical crashin’ and burstin’ into flames, then there was the disgruntled citizens who mistook us for Maliwan-”

“Do not forget the junkie who believed that I was Digby Vermouth and accused you all of trying to kidnap me.” FL4K piped up, trying to pry their arm from Mr Chew’s jaws and only succeeding in triggering a game of tug-o-war with the excitable pup.

“Oh aye, how could I forget?” It had been funny at first to watch the rambling bastard beg FL4K to belt out a tune for him on their sax (or in this case, their own arm which had been ripped off during the technical crash), but when he swung wildly at Zane, connecting with his eye socket as he tried to walk away, well, ‘an eye for an eye’ wasn’t just a catchy turn of phrase.

Rhys puffed out his cheeks as he exhaled sharply and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, so much for sampling the local hospitality. Anyway, you’re here now and that’s all that matters, we might actually stand a chance in this war against Katagawa and his army with your help.”

“We’re not going to stand a chance against anybody if we don’t take a break and patch ourselves up, first.” Amara was sporting a busted lip and several small cuts and bruises, but that was nothing compared to Moze, who wriggled impatiently in her arms. She’d taken a bullet to the leg while she was climbing out of Iron Bear, yet despite the colourful language spilling out of her mouth and the fact that she couldn’t walk, she had thus far refused to stop and let anyone take a look at her.

“R-right, sure, I understand. My top guy is still out on a job for me anyway and we can’t move forward with my plan until he gets back. I’ll go have some rooms prepared for you. In the meantime please make yourselves at home and _try_ not to loot everything not nailed to the floor.”

He spun on his heel and left the room briskly without another word, closing the door behind him and leaving the group to begin seeing to their varying aches and pains.

“ _Ow!_ Ease up a little, your hands are like a couple of vices!” Moze snapped, trying to swat Amara’s hands away when she set her down on the floor and began treating her leg.

“Oh stop whining, you big baby. I won’t take long.” Amara clapped back, slapping Moze’s hands like a naughty child and attacking her with a pair of tweezers as she removed the bullet.

“Someone needs to work on their bedside manner.” Zane commented, removing the soda can to poke at the welt beneath his eye.

Amara scoffed quietly, but didn’t look up from what she was doing. “I’ll work on my bedside manner - _hold still -_ when a certain someone works on being a better patient.”

Moze responded by sticking her tongue out in between grinding her teeth.

Over on the sofa, Rhea was attempting to tend to a deep gash in her side. A souvenir of the technical crash, he guessed, or was it from the COV attack? Honestly, the whole day just seemed to blend into one big mess of running and gunning.

“That looks nasty. You need a hand?” He asked when she began fumbling with the cap on the med-hypo she held in her hand, attempting to remove it with her teeth while the other hand held up the hem of her shirt, revealing the jagged, crimson mess beneath.

She looked up as he approached and offered him a smile that was more like a grimace. “It’s not so bad, really, just hurts like hell. Besides,” She shot an apprehensive look at the syringe as she handed it to him. “It’s the hypo I have a problem with.”

“Not a fan of needles?”

“Is anyone?”

“Fair point.” Zane sat down beside her, jostling the cushions beneath them, and shot her an apologetic look when she stiffened up at the sudden movement. “Where’d you pick up this nice shiny cut, anyway?”

Rhea shrugged a shoulder, determinedly looking anywhere but down at her side. “Well, it was either when I got thrown out of the passenger side of the technical, the grenade that blew up in my face or one of the rocks that those Prometheans threw at u- _ah!_ ”

“Sorry, almost got it.” He murmured, sliding the needle directly into the centre of the cut. He heard her breathing hitch sharply and spared a glance up at her face just as she squeezed her eyes shut. “Talk to me for a moment, it’ll take your mind off the pain.”

“About what?!” Her voice was little more than a strained gasp. He knew all too well that hypo shots were slow and agonising, but it was either this or suffer the consequences of handing Zane a needle and thread, and the state of some of the scars on his own body were proof enough that she really didn’t want him stitching her up.

_Either way, she’s gonna have a hell of a scar, at least this way it’ll be a pretty one._

“I dunno… tell me about Isolus.”

“Isolu- _fuck!_ I hardly remember anything about it,” She paused, her expression oddly focused for a moment, before flinching as another wave of pain rolled through her. “uh- it was a mining planet, not very big. People made their fortune in precious metals, sold- _mmph-_ sold it off to weapons companies like Maliwan. Clearly that was a huge fucking mistake! Assholes ended up milking the whole fucking planet dry by the end, but that was long after I left.”

Zane nodded absently. He already knew that, of course. He’d recently done a little digging into all Isolus history from the last thirty years and uncovered no shortage of transgressions from companies like Tediore, Maliwan… and Hyperion.

_The mystery deepens._

Once he was satisfied that the syringe had completely emptied its contents into her system, he slid the needle back out and began wrapping her up in gauze, acting the perfect gentleman the whole time and trying not to allow his treacherous hands to linger in one spot for too long, no matter how smooth her skin felt under his callused knuckles.

“Aaand… we’re done. Want me to kiss it better before you go?”

Her sigh of relief quickly turned into a scoff and she gave him a hard shove with her elbow, though she couldn’t mask the delicious flush of pink that swept across her cheeks when he began to laugh, nor could she hide the smile that crept into the corners of her mouth.

“Do you chat up everyone that you stitch up?”

He shrugged. “More or less, aye.”

“And I suppose you think that’s _real_ smooth?”

There was that challenging tone again, a soft, sensual hum in the back of her throat that carefully toed the line between banter and threat. Most men would likely run a mile at the sound.

Most men, but not Zane.

He wrapped an arm over the back of the sofa and shot her that smug, easy grin that he wore so well, lowering his own voice to match hers.

“Aye, I reckon so. Why, don’t _you_ think I’m smooth?”

He would have winked at her, but his rapidly swelling eye made it a near impossible job, and he sucked in a breath through his teeth at the sudden ache when he tried, bringing a hand up to lightly brush over the skin and pulling a face at the unnatural way it raised up. Rhea chuckled and reached for another hypo.

“Stop flirting with me and c’mere, you don’t want to lose your other eye, do you?”

Rhea didn’t give Zane a chance to reply before sliding closer to him on the sofa, one hand cupping the uninjured side of his face to hold him steady, while the other slowly slid the needle in place before he could protest.

At least he didn’t need any prompting to take his mind off of the almost blinding pain, as he had all the distraction he needed sitting right in front of him.

_I’d get punched in the face every day if I knew I had this view waitin’ for me._

Her amber eyes were soft and focused as she watched the medication slowly drain from the syringe, a mere flicker of honey visible beneath long dark lashes, and he swallowed roughly when he felt her thumb stroke over his cheekbone in a calming motion, her touch featherlight.

“Almost finished.” She promised quietly.

He didn’t trust himself to form a coherent sentence right now, so merely grunted in reply, his eyes going to the curved edges of her mouth. He could see now in close detail the pale, puckered line of scarring that ran through her lips, starting just beneath her nose and trailing off as it reached the bottom of her chin. He bet they were soft, they sure as hell looked it, and he would wager a sweet amount of cash that the sounds she made would be even sweeter.

_Jeez, so much for bein’ a gentleman._

Then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Rhea removed the needle and pulled away with a sigh, and Zane nearly whined in protest when her hand left his cheek before he remembered himself and bit his tongue hard enough to draw blood.

“There, I don’t think there’ll be any permanent damage. The swelling should be gone by morning,” She frowned at the bemused look on his face. “You ok?”

“Uh... y-yeah, course I am.” He cleared his throat and again raised a hand to his face, acting as though he was simply feeling the bruise, when in reality he was trying to mask the treacherous ruddy colour he just knew his cheeks were turning.

But clearly it didn’t go unnoticed by Rhea, if the smug, one-sided grin she shot him was any indication.

“Well well, Zane, maybe you’re not as smooth as you like to think?”

She reached up with a low chuckle and flicked at the collar of his jacket with the tip of her finger, giving him a once over as though she was pleased with her handiwork.

_A threat._

For a moment Zane could only stare back at her like some slack-jawed fool. He kind of wanted to be angry, wanted to ball his hands up and cuss her out for playing with him. But instead, all that came out of his mouth was:

“Alright, your point, lass.”

Rhea quirked an eyebrow and smiled once more. “My point,” she agreed, sliding off of the sofa and pressing a hand to her side where her wound sat. “Thanks again for patching me up, Zane. I owe you one.”

She turned without another word and sauntered over to where Amara and Moze sat (both of whom were still bickering and completely unaware of what was going on around them), a _very_ deliberate wiggle in her hips that had him gritting his teeth to keep from groaning out loud.

_Fuck, she’s nothin’ but trouble..._

_Exactly my kind of trouble._

A sudden loud clatter at his feet diverted his attention from the back of Rhea’s head, and he looked down to see Mr Chew spit FL4K’s arm at his feet, wiggling his butt expectantly.

“Oh great. Everyone wants to play games with Zane today.” He sighed, picking up the arm and tossing it on the other side of the room where the skag bounded after it, his ears pricking at the sound of that low, husky chuckle.

 _Good._ He enjoyed games.

* * *

Rhea had never in her life been more grateful for the feeling of a soft mattress beneath her. Every muscle in her body ached after two solid days of fighting, the wound in her side burned dully, and she felt as though she could have slept for a solid week.

Yet she couldn’t drag her eyes away from the window. She lay on her side, looking out at the wide expanse of city ahead of her; high rises and towering skyscrapers shot up from the ground, obscuring what was most likely a beautiful sunset from view. That was the biggest drawback of this planet for her, there didn’t appear to be a single spot where you could clearly see the sky. She used to love sitting up on the roof of the little shack that she called home back in Sanctuary watching the sun dip below the horizon. And she recalled the red sunsets on Isolus were a thing of beauty.

A sudden wave of misery washed over her at the memory of her home planet, she hadn’t thought about it in detail for so many years until Zane brought it up. Really, the sunsets were the only thing she could remember vividly, everything else was just a blur of mining equipment, raw materials and dirt. She couldn’t even be certain what her parents looked like anymore.

_Didn’t mom have brown eyes? Or was that dad?_

She shook her head when she felt tears prick at the corners of her eyes, as they usually did when she thought too hard about the past, and hit the button to close the shutters. She’d had more than enough of this damn planet to last her a lifetime and right now would love nothing more than to sink into this big, cushy bed and get a solid four hours sleep before she inevitably woke up kicking and screaming.

_Maybe I could take Zane up on his offer?_

She shook her head furiously almost as soon as the thought came to her, and threw her arms across her face with a groan. After the stunt she pulled earlier he was the last person she wanted to see.

What the hell was wrong with her? It was just a bit of playful banter, she’d pushed back a little to see what he would do, and instead found herself wanting to close the distance between them and feel his hands brush up against her skin again.

_They did feel awfully nice- Stop it!_

She rolled onto her front and buried her face in the pillow, continuing to silently scold herself until a knock on the door dragged her dangerously spiralling thoughts back to the present.

“God, what now?” She grumbled, crawling back out of bed and crossing the room as the knocking became more insistent. When she opened, Rhys was standing there, smiling from ear to ear.

“I figured it out!”

Rhea frowned up at him. “Uh… congratulations? I’m sorry, what exactly are we talking about?”

He walked passed her into the room and began pacing back and forth, moving his hands about animatedly. “I spent most of last night wracking my brain trying to figure it out- it was only when I thought to look up the surveillance footage of the attack back at base this morning that I finally realised-”

“Realised _what,_ Rhys?!” She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, she was far too tired for these types of games.

“Where I know you from,” his eyes narrowed curiously, but he couldn’t keep the childlike grin from his face. “You were with Hyperion, weren’t you?”


	7. Monsters

Rhea stared blankly at Rhys for several moments, her mouth opening and closing absently with nothing coming out. Somewhere out on the streets she could hear the sound of a distant explosion rumbling quietly, it was the only proof she had that the world hadn’t come to a screeching halt around her.

Her first instinct was to dismiss everything and claim he was mistaken, plausible deniability and all that crap, right? She just needed to take a breath and find the right words.

It didn’t help that Rhys’ ECHO-eye kept flickering erratically at her, and it reminded her so glaringly of Zane it was almost distracting. Though, the ATLAS CEO’s eye seemed to be an augmentation of some kind rather than a straight up replacement, and it had none of the charm or intrigue of the older operative’s.

_Maybe it’s not the eye that intrigues you? Ugh! This is so not the time!_

Rhea swallowed roughly and leaned into a hip with her arms folded, trying to come across as casual despite the fact that her palms were sweating profusely.

“Hyperion… that’s a bit of a stretch, don’t you think? How’d you reach that conclusion?”

“It wasn’t easy, let me tell you,”

Rhys went back to his pacing, his whole face lit up as though all of his birthday’s had come at once. “I spent hours and hours racking my brain, trying to figure out where I knew your face from. You already told me you’ve never been to Promethea, Thrace, or Elpis, so that made only one other place I could have seen you before: Helios!”

She grimaced internally at the mention of her former home, but said nothing, not that he would have allowed her to get a word in edgeways anyway as he seemed to be fully absorbed in his monologuing.

_Fuck, who put a dollar in this guy?_

“-But then I ran into another problem: Hyperion employed almost nine hundred people up on Helios alone, and of those people, how many of them were likely to have: a. Survived the station’s destruction, and b. Started a new life as a vault hunter in the last six years?”

“I get the feeling you’re about to tell me.” She grumbled, shutting the door to her room, but not before making doubly sure that no one was standing outside who might overhear their conversation.

“-So, I began searching through all of Hyperion’s old employee records from around the time the station went down and came up empty, it was driving me crazy! But then I finally realised,” He turned to her at last and removed his handheld computer from his back pocket, looking as though he might explode from sheer anticipation. “It wasn’t specifically _you_ that I recognised, it was your _file!_ ”

He held out the computer for her to take. Sure enough, there was Rhea’s face staring back at her from the screen, younger and almost sickeningly naive in the way she gazed timidly at the camera, but completely unmistakable.

“Where did you get this?”

“I worked for Hyperion up on Helios. I was a- uh… manager of sorts, and I still have access to all of Hyperion’s old files.”

She cocked an eyebrow at that. “Really? The CEO of the ATLAS Corporation just _happens_ to have access to all of a rival company's top secret files and documents?”

“Well, maybe ‘access’ is putting it a little lightly. I hacked into their servers last night, no biggie.”

Rhea nodded distractedly as she skimmed through the file. There was a lot of information there; detailed lists of all the operations she’d undergone, varying notes from the doctors about her abilities, hell, she was willing to bet that she was the only person on Isolus who knew what their blood type was.

“Y’know, I’ve gotta say,” Rhys went on, barely pausing long enough to take a breath. “This file… it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before; bio-implants, genetic modifications, combat training… seriously high grade stuff, expensive too. Then there’s this _‘Project Angel,’_ ” He looked back at her with narrowed eyes, like he was searching for some sort of clue in the sharpened edges of her face. “Y’know, there used to be a lot of rumours about that one, they used to say that Hyperion kept two monsters hidden in the basement-”

“‘Monsters?’” Well, that was somewhat insulting.

“-I mean, I always knew that Hyperion performed some pretty gruesome experiments down in the lower levels, but _this_ ,” he took the file back and whistled low. “All that time down there… what were they training you for, what was Project Angel?”

“I dunno, they never stopped torturing me long enough to actually tell me what my purpose was.” She said bitterly, perching herself on the edge of the bed.

 _Plausible deniability._ Of course she knew what she was there for, but Rhys had already learned far too much, Lilith would likely have a fit if she found out Rhea had openly told him anything else, and as much as she hated keeping this stupid secret, she hated the thought of breaking her trust just a little more.

“Sounds exactly like Hyperion,” He huffed out a heavy sigh and sat down beside her, staring dejectedly out of the window. “I’ve gotta be honest, I was sort of hoping you’d tell me it was something we could use to turn the tables on Katagawa and end this damn war.”

Now that they were closer, Rhea was a little stunned to see just how haggard Rhys was. The way that his clothes sat on his thin frame, wrinkled and untidy, suggested that he’d worn them for several straight days, his hair was scraggly and unkempt and heavy shadows clung to the skin beneath his eyes, mirroring her own and dramatically aging his young face. This war was clearly taking its toll on him in a big way.

_All those people out there are looking to him for guidance, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised he spent all that time obsessing over who I am if he thought it might help._

She wondered briefly if Katagawa looked equally disheveled, but then reminded herself that he’d started this war completely unprovoked and she didn’t care if he looked like the ass end of a ratch.

Rhys cleared his throat suddenly, pulling her out of her head, and shot her a tired smile.

“So, forgive my vapid curiosity, but how does one of Hyperion’s top secret projects find herself working alongside the Crimson Raiders? Last I heard, both parties were on pretty poor terms with one another.”

“It’s… complicated.” She said absently, now busy staring a hole in the floor.

“Your team don’t know, do they?” He said almost immediately, prompting her to look back at him with a puzzled frown.

By her own admission, Rhea honestly hadn’t thought much of Rhys after their first meeting yesterday, she’d dismissed him as just some bumbling CEO with a big bank account who could barely tie his own shoes and had been quite content to leave it at that. But being alone with him and witnessing firsthand just how resourceful and intuitive he was, she suddenly realised:

This guy was deceptively intelligent.

Which is why she needed to tread lightly around him.

“No one does. Well, except Lilith. She took me in after I left Helios, and then made me a Crimson Raider after the station… y’know...”

“Went down like a psycho with rocks tied to its feet?” Rhys offered helpfully, his smile broadening at the soft quirk of her lips.

“Exactly. She gave me a safe place to stay, kept me hidden from anyone that might want to hurt me, but she also asked me to keep my… _involvement_ with Hyperion a secret. If the wrong person were to find out about me it could spell trouble.”

“You think Hyperion is still looking for you?”

“I have no evidence to suggest they’re not.” She said, suppressing a shudder. Unlikely as it was, she supposed there would still be people out there who were angry at her for leaving, most of whom she could handle if it came down to it, but others…

She really didn’t like thinking about it.

Rhys’ organic hand came up to rub roughly at his face, and he sighed heavily at the look she was giving him. “This- this is the part where you threaten my life to keep me quiet, right?”

Rhea tutted and pulled a face. “I’m not a _thug_ , Rhys. Of course I’m not gonna threaten you,” Killing psychos and Maliwan troops was one thing, but she wasn’t some sort of unhinged maniac that threatened violence when she didn’t get her own way. “But, I _do_ need you to promise not to tell anyone about this file. There are so many more important things going on out there right now, having this out in the open would only complicate matters.”

For a moment, the pair stared each other down, the seconds slowing to a near agonising crawl. She wasn’t lying when she said she didn’t want to threaten him, but if he refused to keep her secret, if he forced her hand-

 _Please don’t make this difficult._ She thought to herself, trying to discern Rhys’ motives from the strangely veiled look he was giving her.

“Well, I suppose it’s not my secret to tell, anyway,” He said at last, shrugging his shoulders. “You have my word, no one will find out about this.”

Relief flooded her. “Thank you.”

Moments later, Rhys was contacted by Lorelei. Rhea could hear her in his earpiece shouting something about Maliwan’s “knitting club” attempting to break into one of their base’s downtown and Rhys sighed raggedly, even as he winced at the invasive voice in his ear, and took his leave with a muttered farewell, arguing back and forth with his second in command as the door slid shut behind him.

As soon as the sound of his voice died down, she let out a groan and threw herself back on the bed with her eyes shut, the near constant sound of far away explosions still thundering in the distance. She couldn’t help the smile that ghosted her face, it sort of reminded her of Pandora.

_Though the beds are ten times more comfortable._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit of a slog to get through so I’m honestly just so happy I got it out there!
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	8. Fireworks

“Shit, this is bad. Where are you guys?”

Rhea hissed that last part into her ECHO device and dashed down the road, firing over her shoulder at the few COV who were chasing her down and ducking down behind the burned out shell of a technical when she heard bullets peppering the ground behind her.

The team had become separated about six blocks back when they wandered unwittingly into what quickly became apparent was COV territory, and it wasn’t until she tripped over a curb in her haste to get away and _didn’t_ receive some snarky witticism that she realised she’d lost track of the others.

 _“FL4K and I are on our way to the rendezvous point. Where are the rest of you?”_ Amara’s voice called out in reply, cut off by the choppy sound of gunfire on their end.

 _“Me an’ the little one are near the coffee shop… anybody fancy anythin’? My treat.”_ Came Zane’s cheery voice, which was punctuated with audible threats from Moze.

Rhea rolled out of the way when a Goliath appeared beside her and swung a large sledgehammer at her head, heavily denting the blackened exterior of the technical when it missed and wedging it firmly between the doors.

“Whatever it is, just make it strong.”

_“Righto, I’ve got just the thing. You’ll love it. Hot an’ full o’whiskey, just like me.”_

She wasn’t the only one to let out an exasperated groan at his comment, but she was willing to bet she was the only one whose face went beet red because damn it all that tone of voice was distracting!

But now was definitely not the time to lose focus.

She clambered up onto the Goliath’s back as it continued trying to wrestle its sledgehammer free, and pressed the barrel of her pistol against the top of its skull. The creature barely had time to grunt in confusion before she pulled the trigger, splattering blood everywhere.

It immediately began to spasm and flail in confusion and agony, a single meaty hand reaching up to swipe blindly at her head, and she dropped to the floor when its pals opened fire, finishing the job for her while she scrambled back behind the technical, wiping blood from her eyes.

“Oh god, I’m gonna throw up!” She squeaked, willing he contents of her stomach to stay put despite the overwhelming stench of blood and brain matter hanging in the air.

 _“Are ya winnin’, lass?”_ Zane asked, failing to keep the amusement from his voice.

“Define ‘winning.’”

 _“You’re not dead?”_ He offered helpfully.

She scoffed loudly as she stood upright and began shooting everything that was pointing a weapon at her, though judging by the distant shouting and squalling coming from up ahead, she was about to be even more heavily outnumbered.

“If you consider being alone and swarmed by COV, ‘winning,’ then sure, I just hit the fucking jackpot!”

As if to prove her point, she flinched when a bullet struck her shield and dropped back down to her knees, cursing loudly. A few more hits like that and she would be in serious trouble.

 _“Where are you?”_ Amara asked, worry evident in _her_ voice at the very least.

_It’s nice to know that at least one of them gives a shit if I get torn to shreds._

A sudden deafening roar distracted Rhea from answering and she peered over the bonnet just in time to see another technical pull up, its guns aimed directly for her flimsy cover.

She leapt to her feet with a shrill gasp and tore down the road before it could begin firing chucks out of the blackened metal and all but dove behind a sturdy looking concrete bollard further down the street, breathing heavily.

_“Rhea?”_

“I’m-” She started when a bullet whistled over her head and embedded itself in the ground.

It was smoking.

The stupid bastards had packed their technical full of incendiary rounds.

“I’m where the fireworks are. Keep an eye out.”

She replaced her ECHO on her belt, ignoring the requests for clarification from the others, and conjured a single ball of flame in her right hand. She allowed herself just a moment to enjoy that familiar warmth that spread throughout her body, before rising to her full height and lobbing it as hard as she could in the direction of the technical.

It didn’t take long for the scorching flames to overwhelm the stock of ammunition on board. One by one the incendiary bullets ignited, engulfing the technical, and she threw herself down on the ground when the whole thing exploded. Wiping out any bandits who were stupid enough to still be standing beside it.

 _“What the fuck was that?!”_ Moze cried.

“Like I said, fireworks.”

By the time Amara and FL4K arrived on the scene, the remaining COV had snapped out of the disorientation left in the wake of the explosion and were throwing everything they had at the group.

“Back off!” Amara shouted, her tattoos glowing vividly as several of her spectral arms sprung up from the ground, pummelling anyone in their way. Meanwhile, FL4K joined Rhea behind the bollard she had claimed for her own, and together the pair took turns firing into the fray, her robotic companion pausing every now and then to shout encouragement to Mr Chew, who yipped delightedly at his master’s approval as he knocked enemy after enemy to the ground.

“Is he alright going out there by himself?” She asked with a frown, her stomach churning when the skag vomited up a thick, caustic fluid over a downed bandit, who began to shriek when her skin started bubbling.

“Mr Chew is a born predator, he knows no fear!” They replied, a note of pride in their voice.

She paused. “...He wouldn’t come back to you even if you called, would he?”

“His bloodlust is insatiable.” They agreed with a sigh.

Amara was still beating a tink black and blue when Zane and Moze turned up, both of them looking a little battered and bruised. Though somehow, Zane’s hair was still impeccably styled.

“What, no coffee?” Rhea complained loudly, leaning her head back against the bollard while she caught her breath.

Zane tossed a grenade down the street and joined the pair behind cover. “No barista,” He corrected. “Turns out all it takes is a wee company war to shut down the whole entire city.”

“Hm, it’s probably for the best. Coffee makes me need to pee like crazy.”

“Less talking, more shooting!” Moze chimed in, hoisting her rifle in the air and popping off several rounds with gritted teeth, one foot propped up on the concrete barrier to steady herself.

By the time they’d finished clearing the way, Rhea’s head was ringing, and her muscles were beginning to tighten from all of the running and fighting she’d been doing.

“A thrilling hunt!” FL4K exclaimed, holding out a hand to help her back to her feet. She offered them a tired grin and turned to the rest of the group.

“I can’t disagree. Are we good?”

“Never better,” Zane flexed his shoulders and grunted at the loud _pop_ that came from his joints. “Though I’ve gotta ask; is bein’ covered in blood gonna become a regular thing for you or what?”

She pulled a face and wiped her cheek with her forearm, sure enough, it came away stained red.

“At least this time it’s not mine.” She grumbled sourly.

“I take it you beat whoever it belongs to?” Moze smirked approvingly, removing her helmet briefly to wipe at the sweat on her brow, her dirty blonde hair sticking to her forehead.

“Of course. What do you take me for, an amateur?”

“We should get going. We were meant to meet up with Rhys’ contact half an hour ago.” Amara had rejoined the group and was busy cracking each knuckle loudly, that proud smirk on her face that she always wore after a good fight.

Rhea wiped her hands on her jeans so that they looked less grisly, and only succeeded in ruining the only pair of pants she had with her. “Did Rhys actually tell any of us who we’re looking for?”

Moze shrugged. “All he said was to make our way to the Maliwan weapons depo and look out for a guy in black.”

“Oh… you mean like that guy there?”

He would have stood out like a sore thumb regardless of whether or not most of the city was in ruin. He was clad head to toe in a skintight stealth suit, his face covered by a sleek black mask, upon which was the image of an angry red face, directed at the vault hunters as he approached them from afar.

“Well, it’s about time / You five are all very late / There’s no time to lose!”

Everyone shared a look at the strangers odd rhythm of speech and approached cautiously. Amara was the first one brave enough to speak up.

“Are you the agent Rhys sent us to assist?”

The stranger nodded. “Rhys is my ally / I’m here to help save ATLAS / My name is Zer0.”

Zane made a noise of recognition, his brow shooting up.

“Oh, I know this guy. Used to hang around in all the fancy merc bars. Only speaks in haiku, if I remember correctly.”

“Haiku?” Rhea repeated with a frown.

“It’s either that or his cousin is also his sister. A lot o’these folks sort of blend into one and the same person after a while.”

“Seriously? Why the hell would anyone just decide one day that they only speak in haiku?” Amara asked out loud, scratching her head.

“Why speak in haiku? / The answer is quite simple / Haikus are fun, duh.” Zer0 replied with a shrug, the image of a smiling face now reflected on his visor.

“Oh…”

“Anyway, boyo, we’re here now. What’s the next step?”

Zer0 gestured for the group to follow him. “Rhys has entrusted / An important job to us / Steal a sword upgrade.”

“Oh yeah? What kind of upgrade?” Moze piped up excitedly, struggling to keep up on her still injured leg.

“The dangerous kind / The kind that may turn the tide / In this stupid war.”

The group made their way to the weapons depo mostly in silence, their eyes peeled for any sign of Maliwan, though it looked as though Zer0 had already swept through the outer courtyard and took care of any troops within.

“These kills are quite precise,” FL4K commented, pausing to observe a body that was lying in two pieces on the ground. “You clearly know your way around a blade. Though I’m curious, why swords in particular?”

“I like to stab stuff.” He replied simply.

“That’s for damn certain.” Rhea muttered, stepping over a bloody puddle with a wrinkled nose.

Inside the depo was no different. Bodies littered the floor, all of them with very distinct cuts and slashes to their bodies. She stared curiously at each one, marvelling at the idea that one person could do so much damage by themselves.

“Clearly you’ve never seen an assassin at work.” Zane told her when she said as much to him.

“Is this the sort of thing you used to do for a living?”

Zane looked back at her with a frown. Usually when a person asked him about his operative life it was accompanied by the brushing of fingers against whatever weapon they had by their side and the tightening of muscles as they tried to decide whether to fight him, or run away. But Rhea spoke of it as casually as one might enquire about the weather, her slim shoulders tensed only with the weight of the bag on her back.

It made for a pleasant change.

“Eh, more or less. Though usually I never return to the scene of my mass murder.”

The group entered a room which was packed to the rafters with weapons crates, lots of them stamped with the ATLAS logo, though there were a great many more of them thrown haphazardly around that bore the name Maliwan. It was one of those boxes that Zer0 approached in the centre of the room sitting on a pedestal, as though it had been placed there specifically to draw the attention of anyone who entered. He pried it open with the blade of his sword and began rifling through while the Vault Hunters looked on.

“Now, why would Maliwan just leave all these fine guns sittin’ here in boxes?” Zane pondered out loud, holding up a shiny laser rifle that he retrieved from another crate. He caressed the barrel with a knuckle, then shrugged and shouldered it. “Not that I’m complainin’, suppose they’re better in our hands.”

Amara also approached the crate and grabbed a couple of grenades with a grin. “I second that notion. That last fight left me a little low on supplies and I don’t want to risk bruising my fists.”

“Aha, I found it!” Zer0 cried, retrieving the upgrade he was looking for from the bottom of the crate. He spent a moment affixing it to the handle of his sword, his visor beaming ear to ear when it glowed a dazzling shade of red.

“Now _this_ is a sword / a fine new upgrade to add / to my arsenal.”

“Oh Zer0, didn’t anyone ever warn you against the dangers of stealing?”

The sudden voice came from a monitor in front of the crate that Zer0 had just looted, where an image of a smartly dressed man appeared on the screen.

“Tsk tsk, what terrible manners you have. What’s wrong, ATLAS not quite _cutting_ it for you anymore? You know, my offer still stands, I have a space for someone of your particular talents by my side.”

 _Yep, looks just like every other arsehole CEO hellbent on company takeovers._ Zane decided with a scowl.

Katagawa might have passed for an attractive man were it not for the way he wrinkled his nose as though there was some foul odour hovering right beneath it, and just who the hell was he trying to fool with those “too perfect” straight white teeth? Zane had seen better dental work in chop shops back on Pandora. And _no_ man with good intentions wore that much pomade in their hair.

The Maliwan CEO’s attention turned to the vault hunters when Zer0 refused to so much as acknowledge his presence, his beady little eyes narrowing as he took them in one by one.

“And these must be the Vault Hunters the Calypsos told me so much about. I’ve gotta say, they were right, you don’t look like much more than a bunch of bottom feeding thieves. And considering that’s _my_ technology you’re holding, I’d say their description was spot on.”

“Eh, what’re you gonna do about it?” Zane shrugged nonchalantly.

Katagawa’s face broke into a greedy smile. “I’m gonna make you an offer, blondie. The five of you put on a little fight to the death for me, and I’ll consider allowing the victor to join Maliwan… as a janitor, of course. I don’t want you clowns getting any delusions of grandeur.”

To their credit, the Vault Hunters didn’t immediately laugh in his face.

First they shared a look, which quickly became a grin, and then, finally, they laughed.

“You’ve gotta be kidding us, old man!” Moze wheezed, leaning against her knees for support as she roared with laughter.

His smile was quickly replaced by a venomous sneer and he sniffed like a petulant child. “I’ll remember that, tiny. Mark my words, you’ll all be begging to come work for me by the end.”

The screen suddenly cut out and a sudden low hum came from the back of the monitor. Everyone watched in silence until a grenade popped out and fell at their feet with a loud clatter. Zane had seen that flashing light a thousand times before.

“ _Move!_ ”

Zane stumbled backwards and activated his barrier, grabbing Amara by the arm as she rushed past. The pair barely made it to their knees before they were both rocked by the resulting explosion. He would never get used to the sudden buildup of pressure in his body and groaned through gritted teeth as his head begin to pound.

“That was a cheap shot.” He grumbled as soon as the world stopped shaking beneath him. He clambered to his feet and held out a hand for Anara to do the same, but she was already upright and rushing into the centre of the room where the group had just been standing.

“Moze? Moze!”

“Here! We’re over here!”

Moze, FL4K and Rhea were all sprawled out on the floor on the other side of the room, coughing and grunting as they attempted to get back to their feet. It looked as though they had all been sent flying across the room as they tried to flee the explosion. The two women were both bleeding from cuts to their arms and faces and FL4K was rotating both legs a little stiffly, Mr Chew was barking furiously from the door where Zer0 stood, apparently unharmed.

“I’m never buying Maliwan ever again.” The gunner fumed, shooing Amara away as she tried to pull her into her arms.

“Do you get the feeling he’s not a big fan of ours?” Rhea chimed in with a hiss, accepting Zane’s hand and getting gingerly to her feet. He didn’t let go until she had taken a few tentative steps, proving she wasn’t about to collapse in a heap.

“There’s no time to waste / We need to find Gigamind / Follow me quickly!” Zer0 piped in before turning and slashing his way through the Maliwan shield that blocked their way out like it was made of paper.

FL4K was still bending their metal hands in abnormal directions when they approached the assassin.

“What is a Gigamind?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo it’s been a hot minute since I updated this story, I’m sorryyy! T.T
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this update though!


End file.
